I'm loving this so called "Road Cycling"

I had been thinking about riding for several years.
My life has been on concrete for over 30 years and the feet just hurt.

I found a 1980-2 Scwhinn Travelor on my local craigslist for $150.00

1st week I rode 37 miles.
2nd week i rode 82 miles.
My 3rd full week ends tonight and I have logged 125.1 miles.
My goal from now on is 100+ depending on weather.

Started at 6'2" @ 271 lbs.
Losing weight already, but the cardio is awesome. I hope to ride for life at this point and I'm looking forward to getting back down to 215lbs

I picked up a free app on my phone (mapmyride) and it tracks:
Distance
Duration
Speed
Calories

I'm burning some serious calories - anyone know if the calories part is correct. I spoke with some thin riders and they said calories aren't real high, but with my weight it says I'm burning 1100 calories in 10 miles and 3677 on a long 36.77 mile ride. I think the numbers are high because of my body weight at this point. I would think the numbers would lower as I loose weight. I'll be compairing my distances with my weight as I go.

I'm lucky because I can either load up and drive 7 minutes to ride some secluded hilly spots or for longer rides leave right from my house.

Anyway - thanks in advance for any input and I'm hooked on this new lifestyle. It's time for a change! Life is good, but it is now looking even better....

Map my ride should be good. I use Strava, I think it's the preferred app around here. Obviously those apps are estimating and don't know anything about your personal metabolism. I apparently burned about 2000 calories on my morning ride yesterday 43 miles and about 3000 feet elevation gain. I'd just your condition by how you feel and how you look in the mirror more than app data or scale weight. Get on a good diet/nutrional program and a good riding regiment

What is your evidence? Any way you estimate calories burned it is just an estimate. These apps use common formulas and do the math for you. As long as your input is all accurate then you should get a decent estimate. But yeah, like I said earlier everyone metabolizes calories at a different rate so no app or math formula will every be 100% accurate.

Get to know your body. Eat when you are hungry, don't eat when you're not

Not really worried about true calorie counts, but the numbers have to be high for me because this stuff is working. Feeling great.
I use to lift weights up thru my ealry 30's. Burning more than back then but the main thing is the cardio.
Lean and flexible is my goal. Lots of reading for me to educate myself. Good site and good people here.
Thanks everyone.

I agree that the calorie-burn numbers are wildly incorrect. Especially ones that skew based on weight (when cycling). The formulas are poor.

One of the biggest problems is they start by trying to calculate TOTAL calories, not NET calories. You would burn a couple of hundred per hour sitting on the sofa, and going to the fridge twice. So there's the start of the problem.

Next up is the "weight-based calculations". Since they can't know your true body-makeup, they just use a 110 or 150lb "average" person, and multiply by a factor of whatever-BS-factor they use. Regardless of the fact that on flat ground, the extra weight isn't as big a factor as in running.

THEN, they compound the fudging by giving you extra-calorie-burn-credits for elevation-gain, but not subtracting for the descents.

THEN.... There's a bunch of those calories that come from blood-glucose, and stored-within-the-last-24-hours carbs. Those calories burned do almost zero towards weight-loss.

These burn-numbers are best used by fat-chicks on treadmills/ellipticals, that see they burned 350 cals, and think it's OK to reward themselves with a 100cal snack (never mind that the actual net-burn was 150). Then they can't figure out why they aren't losing weight.

If you do want to use the calorie calculator, put your ideal weight into your mapmyride profile. Like 180lbs. That will get you closer, but don't put a lot of faith in it.

And no, you have never and will never burn 3,700 calories in 10 miles. Not even close.

That said...... Welcome to the forum! Great job so far. I enjoyed your enthusiastic post and attitude!

The key to continuing riding is keeping it fun. For some people the numbers help, for others they do not. What you love most about cycling may change over time.

I've seen a fair number of people burn out on cycling by doing too much too soon. Be careful of that; at the first sign of disillusionment, back the miles down to find the maximum fun.

I hear ya. Do what makes you feel good.
We dirtbike, boat, hunt, fish but the feet just hurt too much.
The cycling doesn't hurt them at all and they are actually feeling better.
Chin strap has tighten already. I hop esome new people read this and are inspired to get out there.
I know some really good cyclist and thanked them this week for the inspiration that they had on my decision to take up this sport.

Hard to change anything right now when I'm having a blast!I log all my miles in a noteboook, write little things that may have been cool while out riding and I'm working on getting the rest of my family involved (wife and 2 other boys).

coasting, few quotes are worthy of him, and of those, even fewer printable in a family forum......quote 3alarmer
No @coasting, you should stay 100% as you are right now, don't change a thing....quote Heathpack

I logged 133 miles this past week and ordered a Defy 1 on Friday. LBS is going to fit me this Thursday or Friday, depends on what works best for me.

Took the family to a local city bike trail and everyone road for about 10 miles (just decent hybrid and mountain bikes). My 21 yr old is on his way to being hooked as well. The wife and 14 yr old like it but my wife will stick to easy joy riding on the weekends. The 14 year old loves it but he has started football.

Congrats, wingtipsdown. I am getting back into it myself, and it's encouraging and inspiring to read stories like yours. I am about 6'3" and 265 right now, down from a recent 270 or so, and my target weight is about 220, I think, so we're close on that number. I just got my first bike in over 25 years yesterday, and I am psyched. I picked it up at about 4 PM after being out of town for work all week, and really kind of tired, but I couldn't help taking it out for a spin. I am going to try and ride at least three times this week. Your first week's goal is a nice target for me to aim at, but I only started with 2.2 on my first outing. I'll have to suck it up to reach 35+ by next Saturday!

Congrats, wingtipsdown. I am getting back into it myself, and it's encouraging and inspiring to read stories like yours. I am about 6'3" and 265 right now, down from a recent 270 or so, and my target weight is about 220, I think, so we're close on that number. I just got my first bike in over 25 years yesterday, and I am psyched. I picked it up at about 4 PM after being out of town for work all week, and really kind of tired, but I couldn't help taking it out for a spin. I am going to try and ride at least three times this week. Your first week's goal is a nice target for me to aim at, but I only started with 2.2 on my first outing. I'll have to suck it up to reach 35+ by next Saturday!

I'm with you guys (at ~215 now, down from 285.) I got started doing short rides (a mile or two) on my mountain bike (complete with having to get off and walk up the hilly streets in my neighborhood!) and eventually put slicker tires on it and began riding it on the road for longer distances. I eventually was riding 15-25 miles and even rode with the local club's weekend ride for a while on the mountain bike. I finally decided to buy a craigslist road bike and fix it up with some parts from e-bay. Fast-forward 6-months later and I've put 2000 miles and 150,000 feet of climbing in and I'm feeling 10-years younger. The weight loss has plateau'd a bit (mainly because I have done very little on the diet front) but I continue to get leaner, gain cardio, endurance, etc.